Page 36 of The Confidant
I closed my eyes, not even wanting to picture a future where he ended up with someone that wasn’t me.
“You’re not going to lose him.” Ava looked at me with an assurance in her light-brown eyes that I didn’t feel. “He wouldn’t lose all of his feelings for you after just one date. I bet it’s just as hard for him to watch you with Xander as it is for you to see him with someone else.”
“I hope so,” I said.
Though even as I said it, the flame of jealousy inside me was instantly lit even hotter because Hunter and Addison decided to walk onto the dimly lit dance floor in that exact moment—him leading her by the hand.
He was holding her hand?My heart cracked with the thought.
“Does he not realize I’m standing right here?”I wondered aloud as he pulled Addison into his arms for a slow dance beneath the twinkling lights.
Because he either knew I was standing ten feet away and just didn’t care that I had a front-row seat to everything, or he was too preoccupied with falling in love with perfect little Addison to notice me.
“Just stop watching them,” Ava said when she noticed the way I was trying to burn Addison’s perfectly curled blonde hair to a crisp with my jealous glare. “It’s only going to make things worse.”
But despite knowing I should do what my friend suggested, I couldn’t make myself look away.
Because if Hunter was going to fall in love with someone else, seeing it firsthand would make my current feelings of denial harder to lean into later.
“Look away, Scarlett,” Ava said more firmly when Hunter bent close to Addison’s ear to say something.
What was he whispering to her? Sweet nothings?
Was he telling her she looked beautiful in her sleeveless maroon dress and that he liked the way it hugged her every curve?
Was he pressing his hand more firmly against her back the way he always did to me when we danced…his way to silently signal that he was still attracted to me even if we couldn’t say the words aloud or make it too obvious to people around us?
“Scarlett.” Ava touched my elbow to get my attention.
But when I didn’t look away, she physically took my arms in her hands—using more strength than I thought she had—and swiveled me around so that my back was to the dance floor.
“Carter and Xander are on their way back here,” Ava said in a soft voice. “And you owe it to yourself to have a good time.”
“Yeah, like that’s possible.” I snorted.
“Fine, then don’t have fun.” She lifted her hands in the air. “I mean, I’m sure you and Hunter are above playing mind games with each other. But if I were in your shoes, I’d at least try to make itseemlike I was having a good time. Let Hunter see that you’re not just going to sit around and be sad as he flirts with someone else.”
“Huh?” I furrowed my brow, not following.
“You’re on a date with a freaking billionaire, Scarlett. One who is crazy hot and older, too,” Ava said, like it should be obvious. “I bet Hunter is already sweating but just hiding it better than you. You know how he is. He is, like, the king of looking chill under pressure.”
“You think so?”
“Yes,” she said. “You’re a freaking catch, Scarlett. And if he’s not already thinking that, it’s time for you toremindhim of what he can have with you.”
“But how is that supposed to help anything?” I asked. “It’s not like I can actually even date him right now.” I glanced around us to make sure no one was eavesdropping before lowering my voice and saying, “Even if I could make him jealous of Xander, it’s not like anything could happen with Hunter. My dad still has his rules.”
“We graduate in less than four months. That’s not that long, and you’re worth waiting for,” Ava said. “Focus on that tonight, and then we can set up plans for sabotaging Hunter and Addison in the morning if we need to.”
* * *
“This is a great song,”Xander said as we danced to “Lady in Red” by Chris DeBurgh thirty minutes later. “Don’t you think?”
“Yeah, I like it,” I said. The DJ was playing love ballads from the past several decades to go along with the dance’s theme of “Romance Through the Ages.” It was a song I’d only heard a few times before, but it was nice and had a great slow beat that was perfect for slow dancing.
And despite things being somewhat rocky the first hour at the dance, things were going a little better now.
Partly because of the plans Ava had suggested, where I stopped acting like a jealous ex and instead twist things around so that Hunter would assume I was having a great night, too.
